The Last Real Adventurer

"Because it's there."  - Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008

Three news stories made an impression on me as a very young boy: the Korean War, Roger Bannister running a sub-four minute mile, and Edmund Hillary climbing Mount Everest. They impressed me and stuck in my mind, though I had not the foggiest notion of their meaning. In retrospect it is interesting. These events illustrate three manifestations of a single defining characteristic of humans - the genetic imperative to exercise control / impose one's will. In Bannister's case, control of oneself. In Hillary's, control of the environment. And the third, that most odious of all human activities, the imposition of will on others.

Hillary's feat, though repeated, still astonishes me when I consider it carefully. I regard him as perhaps the last true adventurer. Since Everest, hundreds of people have accomplished hundreds of different unthinkable feats but none, to me, have that mystique of Everest - sans Kevlar, Thinsulate and GPS. Billionaires bounce around the globe in their multi-million dollar, space-age contraptions trying to achieve this or beat that record, and it all leaves me sighing and thinking "So what?"

It brings to mind the Guiness Book of Records. When originally published it was a dry but informative and entertaining listing of generally unintentional superlatives: the man with the longest hair or fingernails, the longest a person has ever gone without water, and so forth. Now, it is a contrived event. People invent activities and then get tested or scrutinized to establish that "Yes, by golly, you have kept your big toe in icy water longer than any other human ever recorded!" Similarly, it seems all human activities originally engaged in for the sheer exuberance and joy of the activity itself have to be quantified. We make contests of things that should simply be enjoyed or savored. Surfing, figure skating, sky diving. Bungee jumping contests!!!!

Another part of Sir Edmund's legacy is not so amusing as it is sad. Since Hillary and Tenzing-Norgay* first summited, there have been over 3500 expeditions, over 2000 deaths, summits by the blind and the handicapped and anyone else with the tens of thousands of dollars needed to obtain a permit. Now, the Mother God, Chomolungma is a carnival attraction - just a big rock, littered with dead bodies and refuse. A testament to hubris, irresponsibility and insensitivity. Where Hillary climbed it "Because it's there." it is now just an opportunity to say "How cool am I! Bet you can't do that!"

I cannot say much about Hillary the man because I just don't know much. It seems though that he could not be more different from today's "been there, done that", "where's the buzz" extreme action type. He devoted much of his life to the care of not just Everest but the people who lived near it and have come to depend on it. He was, like Jacques Cousteau, one of the original adventurers with a purpose and a conscience. A genuine national hero for New Zealand.

* True to his word, Hillary took to the grave his promise never to reveal whether it was the Kiwi or the Shirpa whose foot first alighted on the peak.

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 I trust everyone appreciates the gargantuan self restraint it required to not title this post "Today They Laid to Rest the Wrong Hillary". Bad dog! Down boy!!!